ster, thus called to order, began to laugh and said to
Fario,--

"If I, by accident, broke your barrow, and you in return try to slander
me, we are quits."

"Not yet," muttered Fario. "But I am glad to know what my barrow was
worth."

"Ah, Max, you've found your match!" said a spectator of the scene, who
did not belong to the Order of Idleness.

"Adieu, Monsieur Gilet. I haven't thanked you yet for lending me a
hand," cried the Spaniard, as he kicked the sides of his horse and
disappeared amid loud hurrahs.

"We will keep the tires of the wheels for you," shouted a wheelwright,
who had come to inspect the damage done to the cart.

One of the shafts was sticking upright in the ground, as straight as a
tree. Max stood by, pale and thoughtful, and deeply annoyed by Fario's
speech. For five days after this, nothing was talked of in Issoudun but
the tale of the Spaniard's barrow; it was even fated to travel abroad,
as Goddet remarked,--for it went the round of Berry, where the speeches
of Fario and Max were repeated, and at the end of a week the affair,
greatly to the Spaniard's satisfaction, was still the talk of the three
departments and the subject of endless gossip. In consequence of the
vindictive Spaniard's terrible speech, Max and the Rabouilleuse became
the object of certain comments which were merely whispered in
Issoudun, though they were spoken aloud in Bourges, Vatan, Vierzon, and
Chateauroux. Maxence Gilet knew enough of that region of the country to
guess how envenomed such comments would become.

"We can't stop their tongues," he said at last. "Ah! I did a foolish
thing!"

"Max!" said Francois, taking his arm. "They are coming to-night."

"They! Who!"

"The Bridaus. My grandmother has just had a letter from her
goddaughter."

"Listen, my boy," said Max in a low voice. "I have been thinking
deeply of this matter. Neither Flore nor I ought to seem opposed to the
Bridaus. If these heirs are to be got rid of, it is for you Hochons
to drive them out of Issoudun. Find out what sort of people they are.
To-morrow at Mere Cognette's, after I've taken their measure, we can
decide what is to be done, and how we can set your grandfather against
them."

"The Spaniard found the flaw in Max's armor," said Baruch to his cousin
Francois, as they turned into Monsieur Hochon's house and watched their
comrade entering his own door.

While Max was thus employed, Flore, in spite of her friend's advice, was
unable